Cherry blossom season in Japan officially arrived with yesterday’s announcement that the trees in Tokyo have started to flower. Surprisingly, the season here in Saga didn’t start until today, despite the city’s location several hundred kilometers south of the capital. Sure enough, I didn’t see any blossoms on my morning constitutional yesterday, but I noticed them peeking out on my circuit of the park today.

With classic Japanese attention to detail, particularly when it comes to sakura, the local weather bureau announced the season started three days earlier than in an average year, and four days earlier than last year. They predict the blossoms will be in full bloom on the 30th, making it bit inconvenient for holding hanami, or flower-viewing parties, on the weekend.

Is there any practical use in knowing that the cherries are earlier or later than usual? Yes, if you’ve invested in the Japanese stock market. The Shinko Research Institute yesterday revealed the fruits of their research showing that stock prices soar dramatically in those years the cherries bloom early in Tokyo. (News stories only in Japanese.)

The institute classified every year since 1953 as either a year the blossoms appeared early (before March 28) or a year they appeared late. They then compared the change in prices on the TOPIX index between the end of March and the end of December that same year. They found the index rose an average of 7.0% during the early years and just 2.8% during the late years. The Institute also admits there are exceptions, however—the flowers bloomed late last year, but the market soared 40%.

But no sooner had Shinko Research developed its cherry index than word came of a potential threat to cherry blossoms nationwide. The Flower Association of Japan reports they have found evidence of a blight called witches’ broom at 25 sites in 18 prefectures among the 53 locations in 28 of the nation’s 47 prefectures that they survey. They state that infestation at this level means the blight has probably spread much further. If left untreated, witches’ broom will destroy a tree’s ability to blossom in about 10 years.

The Flower Association urges that countermeasures be launched immediately. It’s worth noting, however, that they don’t think the nation’s entire stand of cherry trees is in imminent danger of withering and dying in the near future. It is also worth noting that the Association was formed for the specific purpose of distributing a popular variety of cherry saplings, and they happened to time their announcement this year to coincide with the first buds of spring.

That doesn’t stop some Western media outlets from indulging in good, old-fashioned sensationalism. For example, in its coverage of the story, the Guardian sees the potential for dire consequences ahead:

(The) Flower Association of Japan warned a mold called the witches’ broom may wipe out all the cherry blossom trees in future. Its disappearance would not only mean the death of a national symbol but would deprive millions of Japanese of a favourite rite of spring, the hanami (flower-viewing) season…

Such predictions of doom based on a desire to juice up its inside pages would seem to be more typical of a British tabloid than the Guardian. None of the Japanese-language reports I read suggested the Association thought the disappearance of the cherries from Japan was imminent.

Here’s what Kyodo reported in its English-language summary:

The disease makes cherry trees unable to produce flowers and sometimes kills them in about 10 years, so the association has recommended the removal of the lesions from the affected trees.

But maybe I’m giving the Guardian too much credit: there are several similar exaggerations in a very short article.

To read their take on the season, all “office workers” in Japan get ripped during a hanami, all new employees have to stake out a spot in the park for their companies, and public drunkenness in Japan is rare. Memo to the Guardian: everyone in Japan has been to a hanami, not just office workers; not everyone gets stinking drunk; it’s not the duty of new employees everywhere to get to the park early and reserve a space; and public drunkenness can be seen every Friday and Saturday night in the nightclub districts throughout the country. Maybe it’s just that public drunkenness, however one defines it, is rare compared to Britain.

It’s a shame that some parts of the Western media still can’t get it right about Japan, even with a simple news story about a custom more than 1,000 years old. It’s enough to make me feel sorry for the people who are stuck with such an unreliable news source.

But I feel even more sorry for them because they’ll miss the breathtaking natural beauty of parks and other public places throughout Japan over the next fortnight as spring and the cherry blossoms magically transform the country.

Not to mention the people who don’t buy Japanese stocks now, missing out on a chance to make 7% on their investment by the end of the year.